The social-networking site will now require all its users to choose privacy settings controlling who can see their information.

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Only one in five users have customized their settings - meaning almost anyone could see anything on their pages.

Now the 350 million people who belong to Facebook will have to decide whether to let "friends," "friends of friends" or "everyone" peek at their photos and posts.

The site will also allow users to select privacy settings for each piece of content as they post it - which might cut down on unintentionally sharing those party pictures with your boss.

Jules Polonetsky, co-chairman and director at the Future of Privacy Forum think tank in Washington, praised that change, saying putting the controls "when you need it, right there, is far better than putting it in a 'privacy' or 'help' location" on the site.

The changes will have no effect on advertising on the site, Facebook officials said.